Roswell, New Mexico

Ground Zero for aliens, Roswell, Mexico is home to the International UFO Museum and Research. In case you did not know, Roswell was the sight of an infamous alleged UFO crash back in 1947. Uniquely, the town still celebrates that legacy today with an annual UFO festival and the International UFO Museum & Research Center, a popular tourist destination.

As we read while visiting, in July 1947, something happened northwest of Roswell, New Mexico, during a severe thunderstorm. Was it a flying saucer? Was it a weather balloon? What happened?

At the museum, "The Truth Is Here," applies not only to it's displays about the thing that crashed nearby in 1947, but to other related areas of study: crop circles, alien abductions, Area 51, etc.

If you are questioning this incident, Check-out the story behind the in-house replica of an ancient Mayan sarcophagus lid from Mexico. It supposedly shows a man blasting off in a spaceship, backdates the truth timeline to well before the it-was-just-a-weather-balloon era. Hummmmm....

It is said that 83 percent of the UFO Museum's visitors come to Roswell just to see this museum, and that it's among the top five most-visited in the state. Opened in 1991, the Museum quickly became 1996’s “Top Tourist Destination of New Mexico!

The state does not consider this a 'real museum' but the collection of artifacts and the consistent attendance proves otherwise. It's a museum alright, of what exactly, that's up to you! Each room in the museum has been designed to bring back the feeling of 1947 – a newsroom, a government “cover-up” room, and also a room dedicated to providing information about “sightings” in general.

Visitors can examine a container of dirt collected from the UFO crash site, and several small models of the terrain and its half-buried space roadster.

Many of the exhibits have a homemade feel; much of the museum consists of paper displays hung on pegboard walls. There's no need to dress up the facts....

On the other hand, one of the museum's star attractions is a prop alien corpse dummy from the 1994 Showtime movie Roswell: The UFO Coverup, lying on a hospital gurney inside a glass-walled room.

And we think this may be another Hollywood movie star...

The Research Center offers books, illustrations, records, and other research materials galore.

At the UFO Museum and Research Center, you can decide for yourself about the flying saucer that allegedly crashed here. We certainly have our opionions - Army project cover-up comes to point.

Nonetheless, in between the truth and the make-believe, roadside stops across America is why we're wandering!